出口目的地、市场竞争与资本品质量

Export Destination,Market Competition and the Quality of Capital Goods

近年来,越来越多的研究强调出口目的地市场是影响产品质量的重要因素。中国已实现资本品比重超过消费品的出口产品结构升级,资本品主要出口到发达目的地但质量提升乏力。本文基于2000—2013年企业—产品—目的地层面数据分析发现,高质量资本品会自我选择出口到发达目的地,但来自出口到发达目的地的“质量溢出效应”和更低的“市场竞争负效应”,使得出口到欠发达目的地的质量提升效应更大。机制检验表明,中国资本品出口企业主要通过产品结构和目的地结构调整而不是创新来应对目的地市场竞争,制约了产品质量提升;其中,发达目的地的市场竞争带来高质量产品占比和出口份额下降,欠发达目的地的市场竞争主要引致产品种类和出口份额扩张。进一步分析发现,目的地市场竞争对中国资本品出口质量的抑制效应主要出现在远、中技术距离行业。本研究不仅有助于深化对中国出口产品结构升级但质量提升乏力的理解,而且能为突破上游资本品质量升级困境进而促进产业链质量提升提供实践支持。

China’s export structure has upgraded with the share of capital goods exceeding that of consumer goods.Capital goods serve as a basic and strategic industry that provides equipment and technology for downstream industries,and the improvement of their quality determines the upgrading of the entire industrial chain and further promotes China from a big manufacturer to a powerful manufacturer.In recent years,many studies have emphasized that the destination is an essential factor influencing firms’quality behavior.Are developed export destinations more conducive to improving the export quality of China’s capital goods?This paper measures the export quality of China’s capital goods and finds that about 80%of capital goods are exported to developed destinations,while the growth of product quality tends to be flatten out in recent years.In addition,capital goods exported to less developed destinations have achieved a greater improvement in quality with the lower proportion.Such findings reflect the differences in market competitiveness of China’s capital goods or the differences in market competition they face in export destinations.Based on data at the firm-product-destination level from 2000 to 2013,this paper finds that high-quality products self-select into developed destinations.However,the quality spillover effect from those products exported to developed destinations and the lower negative market competition effects make greater quality improvement for products exporting to less developed destinations.Mechanism tests show that capital goods exporters respond to destination market competition mainly through product and destination structural adjustment rather than innovation.Market competition in developed destinations reduces the proportion of high-quality products and export share,while that in less developed destinations mainly leads to an expansion in product variety and export share.The negative effect of market competition mainly occurs in laggard sectors far from the technology frontier.Research results imply that it is necessary to pay attention to the role of quality upgrading of capital goods in China’s high-quality development from the perspective of industrial chain.It is important to improve firms’innovation capabilities and overall brand recognition to encourage firms to improve quality.Moreover,firms should adopt differentiated strategies according to the market potential and market competition of different destinations.The finding of smaller quality improvement effects in developed destinations is complementary to previous research.The quality evolution mechanism of how capital goods exporters adopt differentiated product and destination structural adjustment to cope with market competition provides a new perspective for an in-depth understanding of China’s dilemma——export structure upgrading with weak quality improvement,and contributes to literature on export destination competition and export quality.In addition,our analysis based on capital goods can provide policies and practical support for industrial chain upgrading.